Keith, there are several barriers of entry for people who wish to work on
Internet protocols. There are financial barriers, time barriers and most of
all, educational barriers. We all have to learn how email lists work (some
of us had to learn USENET), just as we all had to learn how to access the
Internet. It is incumbent on the participant to move up the learning curve
and follow the email list policy even if that includes extra effort. If
that policy includes subscription, then you just have to go along with it,
onerous or not. The Internet doesn't bend to individuals.
no disagreement about the general argument - we have to understand how
to use our technology. and from time to time we have to learn to use
new technologies.
but subscribe-before-post is not inherently a feature of mailing lists.
we have a choice about whether to impose that extra hump in the learning
curve. my argument is that a choice to do so, for the specific case of
IETF lists, is a poor one.
Keith